K.A.I.R. talk with Lucija Smodiš (Maribor, Slovenia) and Alexandru Raevski (Chisinau, Moldova)

Time:Wednesday, 2th of November,  19.00 / Place: Make-up gallery, Alvinczyho 18, Kosice

The K.A.I.R. artist will present their artistic work as well as the culture scene of their home cities.

Lucija Smodišis a 27-year old artist from Maribor, Slovenia. She studied visual arts at the Pedagogical University in Maribor and worked afterwards as artist as well as curator and culture manager in Slovenia.

Smodiš says about her work, that “…my primary media is video although I am not necessarily attached to it. I choose media that serves me the best in specific situation. In my past I was working with dancers, musicians, made sound performances, artist books. In presentations I tend to install my work into public space or some other place which supports the concept of the work.”

In 2008, she took part in a student exchange at Fine Art Photography & Multimedia Art School, Graz/Austria.

Her sound installation 80 dB won first prize in the Visual arts Forma Viva contest in Maribor; she participated in the Premiera 17 exhibition (Centre for Contemporary Arts Celje), she organised a sound performance for anvil, binary machines, accordion, violin, choir and orchestrain the steel factory in her hometown Ravne with Soogledi group, and is part of the social and art platform Sculptures of temporanity (Skulpture začasnosti, collective Trak 47), working with live analogue projections. In 2010, Smodišdone the one month changing room residency at Stanica in Žilina, where she curated the exhibition fairy tell. In 2011 she was the curator of Gallery K18 in Maribor and is one of the founders of stop motion festival Stoptrik.

About her interest and motivation to come to Košice, Smodišsays: “I am interested in local mythology, pagan legends or places, fairytales, rituals and all the content connected to the cultural heritage. Ancient myth has always provided a ground for artists in visual world and I feel it is very much connected to the primary human nature and its psychological development. I would like to explore Košice and its surrounding, meet local people, listen to stories and expose myself to your mythological treasury.”

Alexandru Raevski (Chisinau, Moldova) is a 32-years old artist from Chisinau, Moldova.

He studied at the faculty of architecture at the Moldova State University of Technology for three years and done a degree of painting and sculpture at the faculty of painting at the University of Pedagogy “Ion Creanga” in Chisnau.

Raevski became an artist after an accident: “Acomplicated surgery and an extended semi-paralyzed standing brought some radical changes to me, who touched my inner world as well as my surrounding. I got deeply interested in issues of socio-political, psychological aspects of the worldview of people who were beyond my former world as sportsmen.”

Raevski participated in several international exhibition projects likeMAYBE festival of public art(Krasnodar, Russia, 2010), cityoneminutes (World exhibition in Shanghai, China, 2010), Import-Export: From Moldova with Love(Neues Museum Weimar, Germany, 2010), QUI VIVE?(Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Russia, 2010) or Consequences and Proposals(Biennale of young artists, Tallinn, Estonia, 2007).

Raevski involving several forms of artistic impressions like photos, video and sculpture elements to expressive his ideas and thoughts. About his stay in Kosice, he mentions, that “myinterest is to focus on transition processes and record them with current artistic practices. We are talking about the city of Kosice, where not only political and economic reforms happen, but also cultural transitions forming the social space. Based on my impressions, I want to focus on the study of local architectural phenomenon and compare them with the Moldovan context.”

K.A.I.R. – Kosice artist in residenceis a programme in the frame of Kosice 2013 / Interface to invite international artists to Kosice and send artists from here abroad.

Thanks to: Kosice 2013 – European capital of culture, Make-up gallery Kosice, Slovak ministry of culture